


A Game of Chess

by trebleDeath



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Action Light, Detectives, Dialogue Heavy, M/M, Phantom Thief AU, Slow Burn, Tags to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-05-23 20:57:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trebleDeath/pseuds/trebleDeath
Summary: Spock's hypothesis is that vulcan's play their best when their lives are on the line, faced with an opponent equal to them in terms of skill. Even if that opponent is an artificial one of your own creation.But what happens if a new rival arrives and is skilled enough, even without the artificial help?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i suppose this is aos compliant. jims eyes are hazel, fight me. and i dont mention anything of notice in the kelvin timeline. its whatever.

“Do you play chess?” 

Spock didn’t look up as he responded to the young man standing in the doorway of his office. The man surely had picked up a piece from the tridimensional chess set he had on display, and surely was smiling, hoping for a mirrored expression. Not that he’d get one. “I used to. What are you doing here, cadet?” 

He hadn’t argued with the assumed rank, but replied.. “I got assigned here. I thought I’d introduce myself, but I must say, commander, that I’m much more interested in why you don’t play chess anymore. I thought Vulcans loved this kind of logic game.”

Spock let out an irritated breath as he finally looked up, taking in the tanned, smiling human standing with a knight in his hand. “Who are you, cadet?”

His grin seemed to widen as he finally caught the attention of the Vulcan. “James T. Kirk. And you’re Spock, right?”

 

“It says so on my door and on my name plate. Yes, I am Commander Spock. What is your purpose here.” 

Kirk gave a light shrug. “Like I said, I wanted to introduce myself. But now I’m much more interested in why you don’t like chess.”

“Illogical. My opinion of chess serves no purpose to you and this conversation is stopping me from doing my work.”

“I’ll let you get back to work if you humour me. I want to know why you don’t like chess.” 

There was a moment of hesitation before Spock responded. It wasn’t worth it to keep arguing. “I have grown tired of the repetitiveness. There are a finite number of moves one can make and the results are always the same, I win, or I stalemate against myself.” 

Kirk let out a soft chuckle, “It just sounds like you need to find someone new to play with.”

“That will not make a difference, cadet. I am a grandmaster of chess, there is no challenge for me, no matter who I am playing against.”

“Well, you haven’t played against me. 

Had Spock been any more lenient with his emotions, he would have frowned slightly at the cockiness of this man. But, he had grown used to the foolhardiness of cadets. “I assure you, cadet, I would win in a match against you.”

“Oh yeah? Prove it.” Despite his challenging words, his cocky smirk stayed on his face.

“Allright. Bring the set over here and I will endeavor to prove it to you.” Normally, he wouldn’t give in to people goading him, but as they say, the quickest way to shut up an overzealous recruit is to show them they know nothing. 

Kirk gave a gleeful nod before moving the set closer, placing the pieces down in the correct spots except a pawn of each color and looked to Spock. “Do you want to let chance choose who plays which color, or do you want white since this is your set?” He held out his fists, each presumably holding one of the missing pawns. 

“I do not leave things to chance. I will take black.” He held his own slender hand out, palm up to receive the black pawn. 

Chuckling, the man dropped it into his outstretched hand. “Looking for a challenge, are you? I like it.” He placed his own pawn down and took his opening move. 

Forty minutes of idle small talk that was largely one sided, Kirk placed his final piece. “I believe that makes it checkmate, doesn’t it Mister Spock?” Indulging in his cocky smile, he grabbed the black king and set it next to the captured queen.

“Commander.” He couldn’t help but take a moment to correct the young man. “It is checkmate, you clearly know that. Now if you will excuse me, I have more work to do.” 

“Sorry. Good game, commander. Thanks for humouring me and playing.” He stood up and started the process of putting the chess set back the way he had found it. 

Spock went back to work, ignoring the man. And while he was working on a surface level, his mind was occupied replaying every move of the game. He could see now that every move was planned with the next several moves anticipated and accounted for. He must have fallen out of that practice to let some new recruit t beat him. It wouldn’t happen again.

Before he could fully replay the game perfectly in his mind, he was interrupted again by the sound of speaking. 

The familiar sound of Captain Pike filled the office. “Ah, Spock, I see you’ve already met the new captain.”

His head snapped up to catch glimpse of the apparent captain answering with a gleeful smirk that reflected in his voice. “Yes, he certainly has. He actually let me win a game of chess.”

There was a soft, fake gasp that followed. “Spock, would you really let him win and not me?”

It took a moment, but he gave his calm response, “I assure you, Captain, that I did not. I was off guard and he won the match. I was not trying to gain his favor as I did not know his rank, nor that he would be the one to replace you.”

Kirk chuckled, “He really didn’t. You should have seen it Chris, he was calling me cadet almost every time he opened his mouth. Kind of endearing, really.”

“Well, you can’t blame him, Jim. You’re in your civvies.” He clapped his shoulder, “I have to go finish packing up my office. Spock, catch Captain Kirk up to date with the phantom thief case.”

Spock nodded, “Will do, sir.” He then shifted his glance to the younger man as Captain Pike left. “How much do you know already?”

The blond shrugged, “Enough. I read all the classified files on the way over, reread what was disclosed to the public, then checked out the fan theories. But, I heard you have a new lead.”

He gave another curt nod. “That is accurate, though I would not lend credibility to fantheories. The new files and theories are in the conference room. Anyone else can show you it and catch you up to date.”

“You won’t show me? But I thought you were the lead on this case.”

“Yes, I am, but I do not think I am necessary to your understanding of the case at the moment. If you need me, I will be here.”

After a moment of hesitation, he nodded. “I’ll see you around, Commander.”

Spock waited for a few minutes after he left to open up his PADD and looking over his drafts for riddles in the future. With a small, almost contemplative smile, he added ‘chess’ to the list. He knew that that would be the next clue, even if it was just to fuck with the new captain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so it turns out i'm bad at summaries.
> 
> i feel some of dialogue here is a bit ooc and info dumpish. but also, what atre you going to do about it?

Kirk was found where he always was found; the conference room in front of a large physical pin board. The first thing he did when Pike left was install it, print every relevant file, and decorate the board with string and pins. Once that was done, he would stand in front of it, occasionally scribbling down an idea on a nearby paper book. 

Spock sat silently at the table, working on his own unrelated work. He wasn’t needed there, but JIm insisted. ‘You have a clarifying, calming way about you, Commander,’ he said. Regardless of why, Spock was there when Uhura stepped into the room. 

“Sir, I have a partial translation for you a full translation is coming, but I thought you’d like to see it.” She lingered in the doorway, a piece paper in her hand. 

A grin grew over his face as he noticed the woman. “You’re absolutely right, Lieutenant.” Striding over to her, he accepted the folded piece of paper and looked at it. “Excellent. Coordinate a team to look into metaphors, symbolism, anything while you finish translating it. You have this copied down?”

She nodded, hesitation plain on her worried lips. “Yes. But, sir. I can’t help but point out that this process would be more efficient if we could share information the way it was supposed to be shared, not on wasteful paper!” Her voice grew increasingly frustrated as she spoke, not quite reaching a shout, but on its way. 

“I understand that, Lieutenant, but I have my reasons.” He flashed her a smile before holding up the paper, “Thanks for this. Keep up the good work.”

Still with a worried frown on her face, the lieutenant nodded before walking away.

With her gone, he turned and opened the paper. He took a few moments to read the patchy handwriting before pinning it on the cork board next to the original. “Any new ideas, Mr. Spock?” He turned to slim man across the room as he spoke. 

“No, I do not have any new theories as I do not know what the translation is.” 

“Oh?” Kirk blinked, “I thought I was reading it out loud. Sorry.” Turning around, he unpinned the paper and walked it to the commander, who promptly read it out loud.”

“‘The monarch of dark in a state of having been killed remains the monarch of dark’ space ‘religious purity move closer flying.’” He was silent for a minute “I do not have any new ideas captain. The translation is too wordy and obscure.”

Jim hummed, taking a seat at the table. “I do think that you perhaps have something to say, Spock. Anything, a theory, a thought.”

He quirked an eyebrow, a cute habit the captain had noticed. “I have none. Theories and thoughts require facts, of which, we have none.”

He pointed at the paper, “We have this.”

“I can tell you what the note says, but I can not translate it further for you or tell you it’s inherent meaning.”

The captain leaned back in the chair. “Do vulcan’s have poetry?”

 

“Yes, but most of it was written pre-reform. Not a lot was written during or survived after the wars.”

He nodded, “Then symbolism is not lost on your perfectly logical mind. Tell me, what do you think it means?”

The vulcan released a soft breath, almost as if sighing. “I can not tell you anything concrete, sir. Did you not prepare a team for the express purpose of finding the symbolism in this message?”

Another nod, “I did. But, I wanted to know if you had any insight.”

He gave a half nod. “I see. And I suppose I am to ask you if you have any ideas?”

Such a small question brought a blooming smile over Kirk’s face. “That is generally considered courteous and is a way to continue the conversation. Thanks for asking, Mr. Spock. I have a few ideas, but I’m afraid most are rather limited in scope.”

 

“I see. Are you going to share them regardless?”

“Right you are, I am.” He chuckled, “I feel like this is either a way of noting that Pike left, him being the monarch or ‘king’ and this guy being the righteous one. It’s like he’s calling the organization tyrannical. That, or he’s going to commit regicide somewhere in the federation. I don’t think those are likely answers, but, it is what I think.”

Spock was quiet for a moment, “You were correct in saying that your scope is limited and biased. The phantom thief has never made a direct call out to the federation or this department in specific before.”

Despite the cold reality of his words, the smile on the captains face only grew warmer. “I know, that’s why I said it’s wrong. My theories are always too specific and you know what they say about specifics.”

He was silent for a moment, “I believe you are referring to the idea that the more specific and idea or scenario, the less likely it is to happen. However, there is still always a possibility. In a world of infinite diversity, there is infinite combinations. Kol-Ut-Shan.”

Kirk smiled at the vulcan phrase, “Thanks.”

His head tilted ever so slightly to the right, his perfect bangs moving just a millimeter. “For what, exactly, are you thanking me for? I was just stating the obvious.”

A small chuckle escaped his lips, “Of course you were. But, you stating the obvious is reassuring to me, calming even.” He stood from the chair, snatching the paper up, “If you’re willing to humour the idea of my highly specific, anxiety riddled theories being true, would you be interested in hearing my other ideas?”

“I would find your anxious notions interesting at the very least if you do choose to share.”

Jim nodded as he pinned up the paper and turned back around to face the commander. “You’ll get a kick out of this one then. I can’t shake the feeling that the phantom thief is part of the federation. Not as a citizen, but rather part of the trained personnel.”

No sound came from Spock. Likely his attempt not to tell the captain off for being so incredulous. 

Kirk shrugged as if he could somehow displace his previous tone and play it off as a joke. “I mean, that’s just a possibility, not a real lead. I’m not actually serious or going to pursue this or anything.”

Finally, Spock spoke up, “It is an interesting idea, even if illogical. I would be interested in hearing what lead you to this conclusions. What logic did you use?”

HEe raised a brow, a small frown twisting up his face. “Logic, Mr. Spock? I would have though you’d call me illogical.”

“Yes, I normally would under such circumstances but I understand that you humans like to pretend you have logic in all actions. Just a different type of illogical logic.”

“Ah. Well, I have my reasons for this suspicion, but I don’t think it’s logic. Just…” he hesitated, “The neck injuries found on all the unconscious guards and civilians is consistent with the signature neck chop of federation personnel. Plus, this phantom thief seems to know when we’re moving and what is happening, even when we have limited press release.”

A soft hum escaped Spock’s lips. “I see. However, this can be explained by other coincidences. I do not understand though, why you would think the suspect could both be a hacker as well as federation personnel.”

The captain sighed, “I don’t think it’s both. Maybe it is. But I want to plan for either of those possibilities.” He paused, making a vague hand gesture before addressing the second in command again, “You think I’m eccentric, don’t you? Well, I can tell you, I’m being very gentle with my odd precautions. Are you familiar with the military operations during earth’s third world war?”

His sharp chin dipped slightly as his words equally confirmed his anser, “I am, vaguely.”

Nodding, he moved again closer to the commander. “Well, the world powers had huge chains of information so that they were torture proof. Some nameless guy on one side of a phone would tell you a series of numbers. He wouldn’t know what it meant or who he was giving it to, he was just a messenger. You’d have your instructions for if you got that sequence, and you would perform your next step to an equally faceless person you didn’t know. No one would know anything, they would just do what they were told. Small tasks. Do you see what I’m saying?”

Another slight tilt, “I do. That kind of operation would require a large amount of manpower, training, and time. Of which, we have very little.”

“I agree, Spock. But, I am being fairly tame. If someone were to die, you can guarantee things around here would get more convoluted. Let’s just be grateful I haven’t done anything like that.”

Spock raised a brow. “Gratitude, sir? Grateful for something nontraditional but not awful?”

A small sigh escaped Kirk followed by a weary smile. “Yes, I suppose I see your point., No one has to be grateful. I just want it known to someone that I am restraining myself to follow protocol and keep everyone sane. Sorry for going off on you.” 

“I did ask for it, captain.”

“Maybe, but you are being very patient with my eccentricness. Especially for a vulcan.” He smirked at the vulcan before leaving the conference room.


End file.
